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May 9, 2006

Egyptian police say they killed Sinai bomb leader

by Sam Savage

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police on Tuesday killed the
leader of the group behind suicide bombings which killed 19
people in the Sinai peninsula last month, the Interior Ministry
said.

Counter-terrorism units and police surrounded an
agricultural area on the outskirts of the north Sinai town of
El Arish in the morning after receiving information that Nasr
Khamis el-Milahi was hiding there, it said in a statement.

Milahi and an assistant, named as Abdullah Alyan Abu Jarir,
tried to escape and a firefight broke out between them and the
police. Milahi was killed and Abu Jarir was captured, it said.

Police found two automatic weapons, ammunition and hand
grenades on them, it added.

The authorities had named Milahi as the leader of a group
called Tawhid wal Jihad (One God and Jihad), which they blame
for a series of attacks in Sinai since October 2004.

They describe it as a group of Sinai Bedouin with militant
Islamist views. The group itself has never issued a public
statement or claimed responsibility for attacks.

The Sinai attacks have killed at least 117 people. The Red
Sea resort of Taba and beach camps further south were bombed in
October 2004 and Sharm el-Sheikh was bombed in July 2005.

Men identified by the authorities as members of the group
have come mainly from El Arish, a poor town on the
Mediterranean coast.

The police last week killed six men wanted over the
bombings in gunbattles in northern Sinai.